330 HEKRY A. MATTILL AND HELEN I. MATTILL 



organism did not sacrifice the iron required for its own vital functions. 

 After blood deprivation it appeared (Eger; Haussennan(a)) that animals 

 returned to normal hemoglobin slowly on inorganic iron, more quickly 

 on food rich in iron, and most quickly on both. The conclusion of 

 Abderhalden that the addition of iron preparations to food rich in 

 iron is more stimulating to the hemopoietic organs than when it is 

 added to iron-poor food, was not universally accepted ; an interesting 

 debate ensued between Abderhalden on the one hand and Jaquet and 

 Tartakowsky on the other, a summary of which is given in Meinertz' 

 excellent review of iron metabolism. From Abderhalden's own figures 

 Tartakowsky showed that the differences in hemoglobin produced by 

 adding inorganic iron to iron-rich and to iron-poor diets were very small, 

 and when taken absolutely were rather in favor of the iron-poor diet with 

 the accompanying relatively smaller total amount of hemoglobin. From 

 histological studies on bone marrow of dogs that had been bled, 

 Hoffmann concluded that the stimulating effect of iron was in speeding 

 up the development of red cells, and Miiller(6) indeed found more nu- 

 clear erythrocytes in the bone marrow of iron-fed animals, but not, he 

 concluded, as a result of stimulation (similar to that of arsenic, perhaps) 

 but simply because of the presence of more raw material. Tartakowsky 

 was able to show that the feeding of iron preparations to anemic dogs on 

 iron-poor food prevented a fall in hemoglobin ; iron was still present in 

 liver and spleen two months after beginning the iron-poor food, and he 

 maintained that the blood of full-grown dogs cannot be deprived of 

 iron by feeding iron-poor food. Only bleeding accomplished this and 

 hemoglobin was brought back to normal on iron-poor food by the addition 

 of iron, but not without it. Lack of material is the whole explanation and 

 bleeding in itself is the stimulus. Later results reported by Oerum indi- 

 cated a distinct superiority of organic iron over the inorganic in restor- 

 ing loss of hemoglobin although the iron content of liver was greatest in 

 the inorganic iron animals. Zahn on the other hand reports findings in- 

 dicating that in animals (made anemic by bleeding) hemoglobin did not 

 increase any more rapidly with than without medicinal iron addition to 

 the food. He fed iron-rich food to both groups and this he considers the 

 important difference between his own and previous experiments; perhaps 

 other dietary factors are also involved (Hooper and Whipple(&)). Chis- 

 toni(&) found that organic iron preparations possessed a superiority 

 over inorganic when given intravenously to dogs with experimental 

 anemia ; hemoglobin and erythrocytes increased less rapidly with inor- 

 ganic, and the other pathological indications did not disappear under 

 inorganic iron administration as they did under the organic. More re- 

 cently the value of inorganic iron in the treatment of secondary anemia 

 has been questioned because Blaud's pills were found to be inert when 

 added to various diets whether these favored blood regeneration or not. 



